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So here’s the deal: if you’re going to the convention, make sure to stop by the Microsoft game room on Friday, March 28, between 4PM and 5PM, or on Saturday, March 29, between 11AM and 1PM. Ask for Twilight or Minion – two of the very friendly folks from MSN Games – and tell them your MSN Games nickname! They’re bringing along some cool Microsoft Casual Games swag to give away, and they’re saving the best stuff for our current players. So if your computer desk just doesn’t look quite right without that all-important MCG notebook or cute plushie GoPets panda, we’ve got you covered. Oh, and I just heard that Twilight may have some free download game cards in her pockets. It’s all first-come, first-serve, though!
One of these years, I’m going to get out to that convention. It sounds like so much fun: people of all ages who love cartoons and videogames, spending an entire weekend watching and playing their favorites, meeting some of the authors and artists, dressing up in silly costumes, and just generally having a good time. I’ve made Minion promise to take lots of photos, and I’ll post a couple of the best ones here next week. I hope there’s somebody dressed up as a Lost Odyssey character; that’s my favorite Xbox 360 game right now!
(Oh, heck, what I’d really love would be to see somebody dressed up as Joboo from Joboo’s Gems, but it’s probably not a good idea… Joboo is just one little gust of wind away from an arrest for indecent exposure.)
Still not too late to win that big-screen TV!
Just a quick note here if you haven’t entered the Sports Madness sweepstakes yet, there are still a few days left! You can enter once a day, and the grand prize is a 50” Samsung flat-panel HDTV plus a one-year GameSpring subscription. Frankly, if that’s not worth a few clicks, I don’t know what is.
A huge milestone for GameSpring
Okay, I could make a lame joke here about what pizza and GameSpring have in common, but instead I’ll spare you the groans, skip right to the chase, and announce that our GameSpring all-you-can-play service now has 200 games! To borrow a phrase I heard last week, that is indeed a metric buttload of games. So if you’ve been thinking of trying GameSpring, you now have 200 games to sample, from every genre and every niche. There’s some awesome stuff in there!
And why the comment about pizza? Because the 200th game we added was Pizza Chef, and also because we’re a team of pizza addicts here. Seriously. I don’t know what was more distressing to us: the closure of our favorite pizza hangout in Redmond last year, or the later discovery that it had been closed for “numerous” health code violations. Egads. I don’t ever want to know what any of those violations were, ever ever ever. But if I grow a third leg, I’ll know who to blame.
Anyway, other new additions to GameSpring include personal favorites Garden Defense and Farm Frenzy, plus Fishing Craze, Jojo’s Fashion Show, Little Shop – City Lights, and AquaSphere. It’s a great example of why I love GameSpring; these are all very different games, but they’re all a blast to play. Even though I’ve technically finished the game, I still load Garden Defense if I have a few minutes to spare, since I’d love to solve every single level on the hardest possible setting. Which I suppose leads to the one problem with GameSpring… you may get unlimited access to 200 games, but who in the world has time to play them all? It’s the Shoney’s buffet conundrum: given that you only have one stomach, how do you narrow down what to eat?
If only all problems were so easy… and delicious…
Oldies but goodies
The really funny thing, to me, is how often I go back to play games we’ve had online for months or years, even though new titles are coming out all the time. As I’ve mentioned before, I really do try to get at least a few minutes of playtime with every game we release, but still… still… there are some days when nothing will do but an hour of Text Twist. Is it odd that some games still call me back again and again? They’re like old friends: maybe not full of surprises, but familiar and comfortable and fun. You may not see ‘em for months, but as soon as you do, it’s like you never left.
There are a few other free web games I just keep coming back to: Jewel Quest and Alchemy seem to appeal more often during lunchtime, while Cubis 2, Chainz 2, and Shape Shifter are more after-work temptations. Bookworm seems to pop up on my screen whenever I’m waiting for a TV show to start or laundry to be dry. And every so often, when I feel like procrastinating at work (I probably shouldn’t admit this, heh), I can’t resist a round or three of Zuma. The current gaming world is at my fingertips, but I still love the old favorites.
How about you? Are there any much-loved games you go back to, even though you could be playing the newest ones? Drop me a line and tell me which games still catch your eye and steal away your free time! I’d love to hear any stories you have about your favorite older games.
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| Tech Talk
You know, usually upgrading is a good thing. But every so often, the latest and greatest version of one program causes another program to freeze in befuddlement. Unfortunately, we’ve got a case of that going on right now. If you happen to have Norton Internet Security Software version 2008, you may have noticed that games by PlayFirst aren’t exactly functioning properly. We’ve already escalated this to the folks at PlayFirst, who are working with Norton and MSN Games to find a solution. A bit of patience, and all will be resolved.
See you next time!
Ask Moxie!
Do you have a question or comment? I’d love to hear from you. Just email me at zmaster@microsoft.com and I’ll do my best to answer in one of these Coffee Breaks! Oh, please make sure to include your MSN Games nickname, so I know who to list here if I quote you!
(And if you have technical questions or problems with a game, we’ll cheerfully answer those as well. Just submit them through the support section of this site!) | |
